When a very powerful attack or explosion causes the whole screen to turn white. In a variant the camera focuses on a character's face, then the entire screen fades to white. Also occurs on a digital screen where another party is witnessing the attack or explosion.

Examples:

Occurs quite often in Mecha anime where a witnesses viewing a digital screen witness a mecha perform a powerful attack or explode. The digital screen becomes a blinding white.

Code Geass with Nunnally during the Freya explosion in Tokyo. Assumed dead for a couple of episodes, she returns when it is discovered that although she was close enough to ground zero for a Fade to White, she was well outside the actual blast radius by that time.

Happened at the conclusion of a number of episodes of Digimon Adventure, though it was just to say "the episode's over, cue the credits."

In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (and the manga to some extent, just not as well shown), it's used to show Maria Ross getting blown up by Roy Mustang's flames. Until you learn that it wasn't actually her...

The omake to Naruto episode 166 fades to red at the end Hinata is bleeding out after being stabbed by Pain. The omake is a flashback to her time at the Academy, showing how she developed admiration for and ultimately fell in love with Naruto, regretting her missed opportunities. This is a rare case where fading to red is used though the character survives.

Used in the finale of GUN×SWORD. An injured Van sees his life flashing before his eyes. At the end of the flashback, as he remembers Wendy's offer to marry him, her face fades to white . . . and then he sees someone else.

In episode 25 of Brigadoon: Marin and Melan, the episode ends with a fade to white as a result of a powerful attack. It also suggests that everyone may have just died. It makes a dramatic setup for the finale.

Happens on Planes when Dusty nearly crashes into a train coming out of a tunnel. The scene fades in to Dusty flying into what appears to be Fluffy Cloud Heaven, but is really landing in a misty field in Nepal, having apparently blocked what happened after that.

Used in The Lord of the Rings when Frodo first sees Arwen and later Elrond, when he's dying from the Morgul blade. One of the ending fake-outs in the Return of the King movie faded to white instead of black, just for variety's sake. As did the actual ending.

The PBS TV show Paper Angels, based on the play, had white-outs between every scene, except one fade to red after a character's suicide.

Anything on LOST involving "flashes," such as Desmond turning the key in season 2, or the time skips in season 5.

Also the H-bomb explosion in the season 5 finale.

Used to disconcerting effect at the end of the West Wing episode "Commencement" — every episode of the show had always ended with a Fade to Black with a "created by" credit in white text, and this episode simply inverted the colors, which somehow seemed like a message that the current cliffhanger (Zoey's kidnapping) was a bigger or at least very different crisis from anything the show had covered so far. The next episode, the season finale, also opened with the title in black-on-white instead of the usual white-on-black; by the end of that episode, the characters' situation had stabilized somewhat and it was back to fading to black at the end.

Supernatural ended season 4 this way, the white light from Lucifer rising from his prison growing more and more intense until it took over the whole screen.

Used in Torchwood to portray the the nuclear meltdown that killed Owen (again, for good - probably...)

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: There is a minor sidequest in which Lightning speaks to three ghosts, and the screen turns white at the end of each conversation. This represents her saving their souls. She thought that only gods could save the souls of the dead. Something of a plot point there.

The Darkness does this at the end, when Jenny tells Jackie to wake up after he's been completely taken over by the Darkness.

Likewise, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword fades to white after Zelda awakens from a thousand-year slumber and stumbles drowsily into Link's arms and holds the effect for a few seconds. What actually happened during the fade is anyone's guess.

Happens frequently in Eternal Darkness. After any "insanity effect cutscene" where the character hallucinates something bizarre and twisted, the screen goes white and fades back to normal. Characters usually then state "this...can't...be happening!"

Occurs in Trauma Center: Under the Knife during the bomb level. Any mistakes cause a zoom-out followed by a fade to white and the usual Operation Failed message.

One of the endings in A Tale Of Two Kingdoms has the screen slowly fade to white, and when it finishes you stay in the fairy realm forever.

At the end of BIT.TRIP FLUX, in the epilogue level, the screen slowly fades to white.

After defeating Master Hand or Crazy Hand, the screen fades to white, and then it fades to black.

In Sim City 4, if you choose to completely delete a city, the screen fades to white, and red loading text comes up.

Not death, per se, nor the entire screen, but defeating any of the StarWolf members in Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars shows their communications screen to be this, presumably from their fighters burning up after you shoot them down.

In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, when the Doctor opens the door of Dracula's castle, there's a blast of light and the panel goes completely white. The Doctor thinks he died, turns out it's just a teleporter.

Used in El Goonish Shivehere (with a fade from white in the next strip), right after Raven shoots the giant boar to save Grace. Might indicate that Grace fainted, or just suffered an emotional overload.

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